Chocolate Covered Marshmallow Rice Krispie Squares with Vanilla Salt

Sometimes I feel like I need to let my inner child out and indulge in something so wonderful and absorbing that I can think of nothing else. I wanted to make some marshmallow rice krispie squares, as I had made them once before with great success, but this time they needed to be even more sensuous and luxurious. Thus, these chocolate coated marshmallow rice krispie squares with vanilla salt were born. A bit of a mouthful both to articulate and masticate.

I’m sure lots of people claim to have been on the salted caramel scene before it became fashionable but I was not one of them. No. I was on the salted chocolate scene when I was a teenager enjoying nothing more than alternating a ready salted crisp and a bite of chocolate. I have to admit that I thought it was weird and no one would really ‘get it’ hence why I never made stuffing my face with crisps and chocolate in quick succession a public matter. Now is the perfect time to publicise my secret salted chocolate love affair as I have recently been made aware of Vanilla Salt from Halen Mon. They kindly sent me a tube to try for myself.

Start by warming the butter and marshmallows over a low heat until melted. Stir in the rice krispies. Put the rice krispie mixture into a greased dish. Those three steps sound wonderfully simple and they do result in exactly what you’d expect them to, however, it’s the bit in the middle you want to watch out for. Once the rice krispies are in it’s a countdown to see how quickly you can distribute and deposit them before you end up like I did.

I have never met anything as sticky as this; it could have stuck greaseproof paper to a non-stick frying pan if it wanted to. During the transition from pan to dish the marshmallow underwent some sort of metamorphosis. It changed from being silky and smooth to stringy and awkward. If you had walked into the kitchen at this moment you would have thought I was preparing far too early for Halloween in making my marshmallow cobweb costume. I had to use my hands to scoop the mixture into the dish and then realised I myself was part of the marshmallow mixture and much time and gentle coaxing was needed to extract myself from the tangled web of mallow. If nothing else make this just to have ten minutes pretending you are Spiderman.

Let the mixture cool before you portion it up. Melt some milk chocolate and either dunk or dribble the chocolate onto each square. Let the chocolate cool for just a minute before sprinkling the vanilla salt crystals over the top. You want the crystals to stick to the chocolate but not to dissolve into it. Leave to cool.

I knew what to expect from the rice krispie square before I wrapped my teeth around it but I was really surprised at how the other flavours and textures turned this into an incredibly generous treat. Imagine: firstly your teeth crunch slightly on the chocolate and salt and then sink down into a pink pillow of fluffy marshmallow interrupted by the crisp cereal. Then you get the mouth coating that only chocolate can provide interspersed with sweet and chewy marshmallow and the crunch of the rice krispies. Finally there is the unctuous vanilla salt rounding the whole thing off. This is a treat for all the senses.